About me
I earned my PhD in American History from New York University, where I studied social and cultural histories. My MA explored the life and significance of a Native American woman in Colonial America. My PhD explored the histories of women and childhood by focusing on the Jewish summer camp movement in the 1920’s and 30’s. In addition to teaching Introduction to Native American History at New York University, Cultural History at Radboud University, supervising MA theses at the University of Amsterdam, and being second reader for a PhD theses at Leiden University’s Roosevelt Institute for American Studies, I am a faculty member at University College Roosevelt, where I teach American, Gender, Media and Native American Studies from an interdisciplinary perspective. My courses explore a range of topics. They include race, ethnicity, gender, disability, age, Identity, science fiction and popular culture. Current research focuses on trauma and activism, International Community Engaged Learning, and Virtual Exchange.
Presentations
- “Silencing and Erasure in North America: Comparative Histories of Violence against Women and Children, 19th-21st Century: A Roundtable Discussion,” Organization of American History Annual Conference on American History: Public Dialogue, Relevance and Change: Being in Service to Communities and the Nation, New Orleans, Louisiana (April 2024)
- “Virtual Exchanges and Environmental Education: Teaching American Studies in the Planetary Age,” American Studies Association Annual Meeting – Solidarity: What Love Looks Like in Public, Montreal, Canada (November 2023)
- “My Body Aches to Act: Reflections on Community Engaged Learning” 6th ECSLHE Futures of Service-Learning: Digital Empowerment, Transformational Literacy and Civic Engagement, Rome, Italy (September 2023)
- “Environmental Injustice: Violence and Murder of Native American Women and Children,” Burst the Bubble: Resistance Symposium, Student Chapter of Amnesty International, University College Roosevelt (April 5, 2023)
- “Going Glocal: Engaging Standing Rock,” Netherlands American Studies Association Roundtable On Community Engaged Learning with Institutions, associations, and citizens of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, North and South Dakota (March 27, 2023)
- “Stolen Lives: Native American Childhood,” International Conference on Childhood Studies, London, England (March 2023)
- “Stolen Lives: How the Abduction, Rape and Murder of American Indian Women and Children relate to ‘changes in the land,’” Environmental Justice in US History, Roosevelt Institute for American Studies, Leiden University, Middelburg, The Netherlands (October 12, 2022)
- Seminar on Equality, Diversity, and Inclusivity (EDI) in Liberal Arts and Science (LAS), University College Roosevelt, Middelburg (June 27, 2022)
- “Telling Stories: Revisiting ‘American’ History,” 43rd American Indian Workshop Conference, Luxembourg City, Luxembourg (June 2, 2022)
- Commentator: “Real Men Wear Masks: COVID-19 and the Crisis of American Masculinity,” Public Health and Disease in the American Century, Roosevelt Institute for American Studies, Leiden University, (Oct. 2021) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uy4F3dOoCPU
- Telling Stories of Daily Life: Revising American History Unhinging the National Framework Expert Group (Amsterdam, Sept. 2021)
- ‘Narrating Lives’: International Conference on Storytelling, (Auto)Biography and (Auto)Ethnography” (London, August 2021)
- “Un/Seen: Native Narratives,” Memory Studies Association Annual Meeting (July 2021)
- Chair: “Indigenous Environmental Justice,” NASA: Superpower by Nature: The Environment and American Studies (Utrecht, May 2021)
- “A Conversation on Community,” with Veronique Schujtens, Utrecht University’s Strengthen Your Education Week Conference (Feb. 2021)
- “Native Narratives,” Poster Presentation, 4th Annual Conference: Unhinging the National Framework (Vrije University; Amsterdam, 2019)
- “Un/Seen Histories: Native Narratives,” Speaking the Past Conference (Middelburg, NL; October 2019)
- “Etty Hillesum,” Third International Etty Hillesum Conference, (Middelburg, NL 2018)
- Marilyn Young Research Grant, Leiden University’s Roosevelt Institute for American Studies, Middelburg, NL (June 2018)
- “Speaking Plainly: A Candid Discussion on Teaching and Learning,” Building Bridges in a Complex World: A Radically Different Kind of Conference, Chania, Crete (July 2017)
- Chair – “Human Rights Education for Strengthening Women’s Rights,” International Conference on Human Rights, (December 2015)
- “Child Care Counts,” presented by Lori Ordover at Women Working for the World, (Bogota, Columbia; 2013)
- “Gender Matters,” Convocation Address, University College Roosevelt, Middelburg, NL (August 2013)
- Presentation, “Mom, I’m Starving…:’ Turning Children into Citizens at Summer Camp” (NY: Jewish Historical Society, 1998)
Recent Publications
- “Un/Seen Histories: Native Narratives,” Speaking the Past: Heritage, Discourse and Publishing in the Digital Age (2021)
- “Summer Camping in the United States,” The Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women (2021)
- “Ordinary Lives: Teaching History with Life Narratives in Transnational Perspective,” Unhinging the National Framework: Perspectives on Transnational Life Writing (2020)
Membership in professional organizations
- Memory Studies Association (MSA)
- Netherlands American Studies Association (NASA) – Board Member
- Organization of American Historians (OAH)
- University Colleges Academics Network Netherlands (UCANN) – UCR Representative